"Is anyone ready to lead South Dakota?

The crucial 2010 elections for influential state and federal offices are less than three months away, but so far no candidate has caught the attention of the average South Dakota voter. Who will step up with innovative ideas and new strategies to help boost our state's future and fortunes?

South Dakota has experienced many exceptional leaders over the years who tried to accomplish good things for our citizens. Sometimes their actions were not popular, but they moved forward even if what they proposed was not politically expedient, because in their hearts and minds it was the right thing to do.

Not all of our leaders have been elected officials:

* Sitting Bull, the famous Sioux chief whose huge band of Indian warriors defeated Gen. George Custer's Seventh Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876. Sitting Bull died in 1890 at 59 after being shot by tribal police on the Standing Rock Reservation.

* Crazy Horse was an Oglala chief who also fought at Little Big Horn and is being immortalized in a gigantic mountain carving near Custer. Crazy Horse was killed at Fort Robinson in Nebraska about a year after the Little Big Horn battle; he was believed to be in his late 30's."

Get the Story:
JIM SHAW: Where are the leaders? (The Rapid City Journal 8/17)